Tags: Religious Building.
Congregation Beth Israel (Hebrew: בית ישראל) is a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Berkeley California. Established in 1924 as the Berkeley Hebrew Center it traces its origins to the First Hebrew Congregation of Berkeley founded in 1909. It was Berkeley’s first synagogue and remains its oldest. Lay-led for four decades it hired its first rabbi Saul Berman in 1963.Berman served until 1969 and was succeeded by Yosef Leibowitz who served for 15 years.